Texas Receives over $88 million for Local Homeless Programs

Texas Receives over $88 million for Local Homeless Programs

Austin, January 11, 2018 – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today awarded a record $2 billion to support more than 7,300 local homeless assistance programs across the nation. HUD’s Continuum of Care grants provide critically needed support to local programs on the front lines of serving individuals and families experiencing homelessness. View a complete list of all the state and local homeless projects awarded funding.

Due to the last year’s devastating hurricanes, HUD extended the application deadline for communities in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands until February 16, 2018.

HUD continues to challenge state and local planning organizations called “Continuums of Care” to support their highest performing local programs that have proven most effective in meeting the needs of persons experiencing homelessness in their communities. Many of these state and local planners also embraced HUD’s call to shift funds from existing underperforming projects to create new ones that are based on best practices that will further their efforts to prevent and end homelessness.

“HUD stands with our local partners who are working each and every day to house and serve our most vulnerable neighbors,” said HUD Secretary Ben Carson. “We know how to end homelessness and it starts with embracing a housing-first approach that relies upon proven strategies that offer permanent housing solutions to those who may otherwise be living in our shelters and on our streets.”

Matthew Doherty, Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness added, “Continuums of Care are critical leaders in the work to end homelessness nationwide. When communities marshal these–and other local, state, private, and philanthropic resources–behind the strongest housing-first practices, we see important progress in our collective goal to end homelessness in America.”

Texas received $88,238,025 in awards, an increase of $1.9 million over last year:

“We’re pleased that the state received an increase in HUD Homeless Assistance funding from one year ago,” said Eric Samuels, President & CEO of Texas Homeless Network. “There are over 23,000 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in Texas, so it’s vital that the strong performing programs previously funded were renewed and funding was provided to implement data-driven strategies for ending homelessness. I urge all advocates and supporters to understand that this funding alone is not enough to meet our goals. I encourage communities to leverage this funding with other resources to expand our efforts to end homelessness.”

Texas has eleven Continuums of Care, or CoCs. CoCs are comprised of a Board, Workgroup, Community Stakeholders, and a lead agency. The lead agency develops plans for the CoC’s geographic area, provides technical assistance, manages the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), and applies for funding on behalf of the projects located in their region.

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About Texas Homeless Network (THN)

THN is a non-profit membership-based organization helping communities strategically plan to prevent and end homelessness. THN works to end homelessness in Texas by collaborating with all communities, large and small, across the state to build systems to achieve this goal. We coordinate local and national advocacy efforts, data collection and research, host two statewide conferences a year, and serve as the lead agency for the Texas Balance of State Continuum of Care (CoC) where we assist in the coordination of programs and funding.